This one was taken the night before T.T. left. He is holding the only photo we were given of "Mama" and "Baba"(Zulu for Daddy). We'd been showing him it as often as possible, pointing them out and getting him to repeat their names. I don't think he really understood the concept of getting new parents, but he definitely got the fact that it was HIS piece of paper and woe betide you if you tried to take it away!
His family threw me into a bit of a tizzy by arriving at the baby home a full hour early. Anna, T.T. and I had just arrived home from purchasing cupcakes (yes, the baking skills failed me this time!) - would have been quite something if they'd arrived and we'd had to tell them their baby wasn't there! Then, they threw off my plans some more by sitting around and signing papers for nearly an hour. Anna was a real help and entertained T.T. in his room, since the social worker didn't want him to meet his Aunt and Uncle before his parents.
Finally, after AGES of paperwork, they were allowed in to meet T.T. In his usual fashion he was super-friendly and went readily to them. We stayed to ease the transition (and interrogate the parents!) for a few minutes, and then left them to "bond" on their own. He didn't even look worried when Anna and I left the room. I guess I was right that, of all my kids, this is the one who would come through this sort of adoption the best.
I was delighted to see that T.T.'s new Daddy was so excited about his new son. Often the fathers that we see wait until the child has been home for a few days to really start bonding. This one stole T.T. out of his new Mom's arms after about 5 minutes. You could see he was just delighted. That gave me a lot of comfort (as I said in the last post, Dad's are my favorite part of adoptions).They were really great about being patient and allowing us to have a party before they left with him. I could tell they really just wanted to hit the road, but they allowed us a last 20min or so with our boy, doing what he does best - eating sugar! It made the kids all a little happier (they'd sensed something was up and been EXTREMELY whiny all week) and T.T. was good to go by the time they got in the car.
The one thing that I reserve as my "foster mom" right is being the one to put the child in the car when they are leaving. Don't ask me why, it's just my thing. Accordingly, I made them all get in, then handed him over, along with a new toy, his juice bottle and some sweets. I think bribery is definitely the key to success because he was the first one in ages not to cry when they drove away.
We're hoping that we'll get an update about him occasionally (I do a really good job of nagging social workers), but with the type of adoption they had it is unlikely we'll ever get to see him again. That was really hard for all of us, but they seem like a really great family and we are praying that he will grow up into a wonderful person.
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